


Surviving

by Churbooseanon



Series: For Every Action, A Reaction [12]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-02-03 15:25:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 20,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Churbooseanon/pseuds/Churbooseanon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They lived their lives as a brief series of moments. Moments that built them up into who they were. </p><p>Somehow those moments never prepared them for living day to day in hiding. Somehow they weren't built for just living.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Little Things

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of two collections of random stories to bridge some of the time between For Every Action and A Reaction, focusing on the ongoing lives and troubles of the escaped Agents Washington, North Dakota, and New York. These stories will be posted as they are made with no necessary order to the writing of them. When relevant I will note where things occur in relation to other stories in this collection. 
> 
> We begin with Theta embracing humor, and cookies solving all the problems of the world.

“You sure about this?” 

“I'm sure,” David groans, and yet his voice was equal parts frustrated and pleased.

David was always frustrated when Nic asked, but he knew it was just as true that David loved the reassurance that Nic was thinking about him. That was half the reason he asked every single time he went out and left David alone in their tiny apartment. The other half was because there was always a chance that David would say 'no.' Giving him that option was the most important thing in his mind. 

“Well, you know what to do if you need us,” Nic called, smiling softly at his young lover.

David was sitting on the middle of the mattress that was their only furniture at this point like he usually did, wrapped up in his favorite blanket—it was the tan one and Miles had gloated over that for the whole two weeks they'd been here—staring down at the newspaper Miles brought in with his morning coffee. The younger man's attention was so wrapped up in the sports section that Nic allowed himself a moment to bite his lip nervously. How many times had he asked Miles not to bring the damn thing home? They were still trying to feel out the differences between good and bad days for David—the signs were few and hard to read—and Nic had a bad feeling that they weren't reading him right this morning. Still, David got upset when Miles came back from coffee runs without the paper so they'd relented on that point, as much as Nic was loath to do so. 

“Oh, you still here?” David asked at last, looking up from the paper as he turned the page. “We're you going to...”

“Forgot the bags. Needed to come back for them,” Nic lied, snatching the cloth bags off the handle of the silverware drawer—which was really only serving as a bag holder until they got silverware—and made for the door. 

_You shouldn't lie to him._

_Remember how we talked about different types of lies, Theta?_

_Yeah?_

_Well, there is a type called 'white lies.' They are minor, really unimportant lies, that you tell to be polite or nice to someone._

_Like when you tell Miles that you don't mind when he wears socks to bed?_

_A bit like that. David probably knows I was worrying about him, and knew I was just trying to politely apologize and leave him alone._

_Weird. Human interaction patterns are pretty strange. Especially lying._

_Yeah, well, you'll forgive me if I'm thankful you're not as interested in that area of human behavior as Gamma was._

_Gamma hurt Alpha,_ Theta said with all the vehemence he reserved for the trio of AI fragments who had actively tortured their originator, and as an after effect lead to Epsilon and David's broken mental state. 

The pain Theta radiated at him from the memory of what they'd learned about the Alpha felt as raw as it had when they had learned the truth. It always was for Theta. AIs didn't get the luxury of forgetting things. Every pain was a fresh as first time they felt it, or at least it seemed that way. The worst part was that _they_ didn't know enough about AI fragments yet, not to make any educated guesses about how they'd function over the long term.

Nic had discovered one thing though... Theta learned fast. Which was why he opted for the stairs rather than the giant cube attached to a string that claimed to be an elevator. The elevator was rickety, smelled terrible, and they had been so uncomfortable with it that sent Miles had gone into the shaft late one night—overflowing with complaints about hating crawling around in vents—to have Delta evaluate the set up. Delta's insistence that it really was secure and would be for some time comforted them enough to use it when they were feeling lazy. The rest of the time they opted for the stairs, running up or down them two at a time. 

The elevator would be easier, especially considering Nic had long since decided he would take the stairs back up when he was laden with groceries. Still, he made a beeline for the stairwell and when he reached the door he pointedly stared for a long moment at the sign nailed to the wall. 

'In case of emergency, take stairs' the sign read.

Theta went from moping to barely restrained giggles immediately. Finally, the AI could take it no more and his giggles washed through Nic's mind as he pushed through the door and started down, bags slung over his shoulder, keys in hand, and the cash Delta and Theta had allotted for food in his pocket. 

_How are you supposed to 'take' the stairs?_ Theta asked as he always did when Nic paid the sign any real attention. 

_Well I suppose we could use the fire ax to hack them free,_ Nic suggested, inspiring more giggles. 

_But how can you carry them with you? I mean, maybe Tex could have..._

Nic just smiled as the pleasure he felt from his AI. 

_Hey... Hey Nic..._

_Yeah, Theta?_

_Did you know Carolina had a photographic memory?_

_Really? I didn't..._

_But she couldn't develop it._

It was Nic's turn to burst out laughing as his feet hit the landing for the ground floor. _Okay, when I tell that one to Miles, I'm gonna say 'Tex' instead of 'Carolina' but you've got my blessing on the pun._

_Oh, what about the fruit flies one?_

_David actually used that one on him before you came to me,_ Nic admitted as he pushed through one door and then another to dump himself out on the street. _Hey, you remember what all we need?_

There was an affirmative ping from Theta and for a moment Nic felt his AI reviewing the list of supplies they had been asked to gather. It wasn't much, they couldn't afford much that was interesting seeing as Miles had only been able to find odd jobs because of his 'vision disability' making him unsuitable for the construction work Nic was doing. Still, the food run had to happen every week, and seeing as Miles couldn't cook to save their lives and David was almost as bad, it was going to come down on Nic every time. 

_Do we really need coffee?_ Theta asked as they made their way to the store on the other side of town. Nic just grinned to himself. 

_You know how much he needs that swill._

_No, I mean, why do we have to buy coffee when he buys it every morning?_

_Theta, will you quickly calculate out how much Miles would spend in a month if he bought only one cup of coffee a day at a buck thirty five a cup?_

_Oh,_ Theta answered immediately. 

They both knew Miles downed at least three a day.

_That isn't very efficient. A very poor use of our limited funds._

_Exactly. We're hoping to cut some of our overhead down. Would you help me with that? We're running pretty tight this week with Miles running his own errands, but we've still got to eat._

_Of course I'll help,_ Theta breezed in his head and Nic smiled as the AI poured satisfaction through his mind.

_Good, because I'm going to need you to help me figure something out. Can you help me buy everything we need and still have a ten free?_

_The cookies?_

Nic smiled as he thought about the group of young girls he'd seen by the store when he'd been walking home the day before. Somehow with all his time with the UNSC and PFL he'd actually forgotten about them. Forgotten about that brief stint his sister had in her own troop, how she'd lied to her troop master about how many boxes of cookies she had sold and how their father had paid for them anyway. He'd been forced to eat so many cookies over the next few months because of Nicky that he barely touched them to this day. 

_They aren't on the list. We don't..._

_David and Miles will smile._

Theta didn't argue further. 

And when they came home to find a box and a table abandoned in the doorway and Miles on the bed desperately clinging David to his chest, whispering soft promises that their young lover's name was David Butler, Nic silently put away the groceries. When he was left with the two boxes of cookies he pushed the table out of the way and carried the sweets to the bed. David's eyes focused and lit up when Nic presented him the box of thin mints. Miles's eyes snapped toward Nic when he held up the box of samoas just out of Miles's easy reach.

“Theta had something he wanted me to tell you first,” Nic warned Miles as he waved the box back and forth in his fingers.

“Yeah, Theta?” Miles asked as David tore his box open and extracted a single chocolate coated cookie. 

“He just thought you'd be interested to know Tex had a photographic memory.”

There was a look of trepidation on Miles's face, mixed with actual intrigue. “She did? I mean, it makes sense seeing as she was a...”

“But she couldn't develop it.”

Miles stared at him for half a moment, then lunched forward to snatch the box from Nic's hand before collapsing back onto the bed with a deep, pained groan. Theta's exuberant cheering exploded in Nic's head at the same moment David doubled over laughing. 

“I hate you all,” Miles groaned as he pried open his own box, retrieved a cookie, and stuffed it in his mouth.

“Good one, Theta,” David laughed so hard he almost rolled off the mattress. 

Nic just smiled at his lovers and resolved to keep cookies around the apartment. 

For emergencies.


	2. Libraries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes the strangest things make David think of Allison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second story in the Surviving collection is a direct partner to the first. Now we see just what David got in his head to mess him up so much.

David waited for the tell tale sound of the apartment door locking before he moved. The last thing he wanted to do when North—Nic, he needed to get used to using their names in private again—was around was make him worry more than Nic was already prone to. Miles wasn't nearly so bad at it, wasn't so protective and cautious even. No, that wasn't right either. Miles was worse, he was more protective, more prone to pulling David into his arms without a word, and frequently more likely to treat David like he couldn't handle things on his own. Of the two Nic gave him the most room, and the most intense support. A quiet word here, a weighty implication there, and all the space he needed, whether it be in his arms or across a room. 

They kept insisting that they could handle things until he could handle—not Epsilon, he'd been pulled very shortly after blaziing a trail through David's mind—the void in his head. Handle the flashes of memory that had made it impossible for him to live with the bed frame they had set up. The ones that made the very idea of beer set his head spinning. 

Neither of them asked, neither of them pushed, but he knew they worried. About him, for him, and they didn't seem to understand. He couldn't just stay here, day in and day out, and wait for them. Before he woke every weekday Nic was gone, off to a construction job he'd found across town in a better neighborhood. They had apparently welcomed a strong man with insane balance and no problem with heights with open arms. Miles was always there when David woke, grumbling to himself in the small room that passed as a kitchen. Once David was up Miles would bustle around to carefully reheat the breakfast Nic had left for him, following the instructions Nic would leave to the letter—he'd already burnt their omelets twice but David didn't mind—and they'd talk quietly. Miles would say his name as much as possible, reaffirm that he was David Butler, not Leonard Church or Alpha or Epsilon. 

David would smile and promise he was okay when Miles finally selected some 'help wanted' ad in the paper and head out. He would leave the newspaper behind, and the help wanted section in the trash. It was the quiet way he reassured David that they didn't need help. 

And David spent his days stretched out on the bed, wrapped in the tan blanket—it was softer, the purple was softer, and Miles gloated whenever he was in the tan one—staring up at the ceiling, trying to sort it out in his head.

Weekends were better. They were easier. Saturday mornings Nic slept in, wrapped around them, and Miles teased them both awake with searching touches. When their morning dalliance had run its course, Nic would arrange a list of what they needed in the area of food and Miles would take tally of the apartment to figure out what they needed most to make the place more comfortable. Both were back by mid-afternoon, each and every Saturday, pretending that everything was okay.

They hadn't seemed to realize that David had stayed up both Friday nights they'd been here and listened to them as they whispered in the kitchen, heads bowed, discussing what they could and couldn't afford to go after that week. They acted like he couldn't hear, like he didn't realize they couldn't afford boxes to store their clothes in, much less the books that Miles brought home for him every Saturday afternoon. 

So he'd planned. Waited until Nic slipped out with Theta to shop—Miles had already gone a while before—before he slipped into the kitchen and snatched the section of the newspaper Miles had relegated to the trash. 

He couldn't just sit there anymore. Epsilon's echo in his head wouldn't let him. Everything he wanted to be for his lovers wouldn't let him. Frankly, David himself couldn't live with it anymore. 

Still, he curled up on the bed—his haven—with the tan blanket wrapped around his shoulders before he flipped through to the help wanted section. 

If there was one thing David was certain of it was that he needed something quiet. Something where being in his own head from time to time wasn't going to be a problem. Something like...

They needed volunteers to help out in a local library. Not for working with customers or anything, but helping to process a new shipment, keeping the place clean against the ever encroaching dust of the city, and helping them reorganize. The pay wasn't too much but David smiled as he circled it with a pen. The hours were perfect too. Started after Miles left for the morning, ended before either of them tended to get home. He would work for a week first, claim that he was out walking if either of them came home to find him gone, and when he added his pay to theirs on Friday night he would smile and they would hug him and...

His body tensed itself in that way that David had grown too familiar with. Without thinking his hands rose to his temples, pressed against them as he tried to will it away. No, he wasn't doing this, wasn't going to take this right now. 

_This is a library, he whispered. I don't care she returned as she pinned him against the shelf. He wanted to tell her that this was an institution of learning, that tradition dictated that they needed to keep quiet, but her arm is across his chest, pressing him back against a large metal bookshelf in an obscure corner of the psychological theory section and dammit her lips are already ghosting over his jaw._

_He can't. This is wrong, they shouldn't be... But Allison never seemed to give a fuck about what he should and shouldn't do. What they shouldn't do. For one thing, she shouldn't be here, and frankly shouldn't have been able to find him so easily. But she had on both counts, somehow getting into a secure research library, and the look in her eyes says it was very deliberate._

_They've only known each other for a week, and he needs to focus. There's a major section of his dissertation coming up and her lips are trailing down his neck, nipping with each kiss, and her other hand is already fumbling at his belt. Here? Now? Couldn't she have waited until they were supposed to meet in a few days? But no, her hands are fast, are nimble, and they're sliding down into his pants and he can't help the shuddering moan when he feels her hand on him._

_Now now, she teases, her voice amused and possessive, this is a library. You have to stay quiet. Someone might hear us. Can you do that for me, Leo? Can you be quiet?_

_No, dear god no, not with the way she was not quite dragging the backs of her finger nails over him. He can't swallow back the yelp, and maybe it would have slipped out if her lips hadn't slammed against his in that moment._

_David._

_No, that wasn't the name she moaned into their kiss. Leo. She called him Leo. No one had every called him that before._

_David, please._

_Her hand was down his pants and her other arm across his chest, so why did he feel strong arms wrapping around his shoulders? Why did he feel heat at his back? Why did she keep using the wrong name?_

_His hands fumbled up as she squeezed and his hips bucked forward. They couldn't do this, not here, and yet they were. His hands were slipping under her shirt and he could feel the approval in the way she flicked her thumb over him._

_That isn't you. Please, you need to come out of this. David... David._

_The voice is mournful on the name, but it isn't hers so it doesn't matter. His heart skips a beat at the idea that someone might come upon them soon. And yet his hands don't listen. They come up to cup her breasts._

_I_ know _Delta, but he's not..._

_Her hand is out of his pants and moving again, pulling them down a bit before yanking his arms down to her hips. Here? Now? Like this? Oh god what was she..._

_Your name is David Butler. You're an army brat, whose father was transferred a lot and mother worked motor pool. Cars seem to hate you. You're the best mid-range shot I've ever seen. If I touch the back of your right heel you moan like no one's business. Please, David, say something._

_His name is Leonard Church, and Allison has strong arms that she wraps around his neck and hell no she doesn't think he's going to be able to... Except she does._

_She smells like leather and steel and cardboard..._

_Cardboard?_

There was a box in front of his face. Green, covered by a picture of laughing girls and a cookie. Thin mints. The name was out of a memory he could reach after, a memory of a girl up the street and his mother giving in to his begging, but he doesn't grab the memory. David, not Leonard, not Epsilon, reached out, smiling, eyes focusing, body relaxing around him, as he gingerly look the box from Nic's hands. The older man—when had Nic come home—was smiling down at him with the soft care and concern he always radiated. Another box was held out then, a purple one, and it waved back and forth and David realized the heat and arms around him were Miles's. 

“Theta had something he wanted me to tell you first,” Nic's voice warned as the box waved. David liked the teasing there, loved it really. He knew as well as Miles did from the tension behind him that this could turn into a joke, or could be a hint of a joke that would never come. 

“Yeah, Theta?” Miles asked from behind his ear as David tore the box open, pulled out a plastic sleeve, and yanked that open as well so he could get out a single chocolate covered cookie. 

The flavors exploded on his tongue in a beautiful sort of pleasure that was pure indulgence because he knew they didn't have money for these. Knew that with every bit of him that was Epsilon. Still he reveled in the flavors, munching happily.

“He just thought you'd be interested to know Tex had a photographic memory.”

So did David, the problem was that far more than half of the photographs weren't his. 

“She did? I mean, it makes sense seeing as she was a...”

“But she couldn't develop it.”

Really, Miles had walked right into that one, and then the warmth of him was gone from David's back as the older man was lunging forward and snatching at the purple box. David just fought to get his cookie down before the laughter that was building up in his gut could explode forth. But that pleased, proud look on Nic's face was far too much. The laughter tore free, barked from him in his pleasure at the fucking ridiculous pun. 

“I hate you all,” Miles groaned behind him, punctuated by the sound of a box opening. He always said that, and never meant it. It was his own way of declaring his love for them. 

“Good one, Theta,” David gasped between his laughter, toppling from the mattress in his mirth. 

“You okay?” Nic asked, kneeling at his side to help him back up, and David could hear the second question further below it. 

_Will you be okay?_ That was what the man really wanted to know. 

“Yeah,” he responded, smiling up at the blonde man. “I'm perfect.”

But when they weren't paying attention later, he returned the newspaper to the trash. Miles had seen it, had to have, but they both kept their own thoughts on the whole thing.

And David resolved never to set foot in a library again. Another thing Leonard Church had stolen from him.


	3. Efficiency

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delta and Miles discuss furniture arrangements and standards of efficiency.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This also takes place right after the first two stories. Just me indulging in a recent desire to play more with Delta and York’s relationship.

_Um... Miles..._

He had actually made it halfway to the kitchen and the blessed gurgling of the first pot of coffee from their brand new used coffee maker. The air was already beautifully perfumed with the scent of brewing beans, a bitter, dusty scent that was absolutely inferior to even the worst kinds they had on the MoI, and Delta had to go and ruin it. Didn't the AI understand just how much he _needed_ that damn coffee? He could taste it on his tongue, scalding hot in a way that the coffee shop down the street didn't dare serve because society had gotten right back to litigious with the war over. 

Amazing how long the solidarity of humanity had lasted. 

_Yeah, D?_ He didn't bother to hide the annoyance in his mental voice, and he knew that Delta would know exactly why he felt it. Well, if he didn't he would quickly, it was too simple for them to cross their barriers these days. They were separate out of courtesy more than anything. 

_Did Nicolas not ask you to get the table placed while he was out talking with David?_

_Which is exactly what we just finished doing._

_I believe you may have misunderstood the instructions you were given._

Miles sighed and glanced back over his shoulder at the table centered in what passed as their 'living room.' Until now they'd been using it for their bed, preferring the proper, smaller room meant for the bed for storing their armor. Eventually, they had all agreed, they would move the bed in there as well, but seeing as their nods toward furniture and comfort had been the mattress alone, none of them had cared much for it yet. 

Still, there had been plenty of room left over, and Miles had been quite happy to arrange their brand new, old square coffee table in what basically amounted to the middle of the room. 

_What the hell, D? It's in a good place. We can sit around it when we eat._

_Would it not be a more efficient use of space to place the edge against the wall, or perhaps move it to the corner._

All Miles could do was gape at the table, which in his vision had Delta standing on it. Granted no one else would be able to see the small, green, armor clad AI. Delta had developed a habit of integrating his preferred visual form into the visual data from Miles's eyes. Even without the holoprojectors of his armor and the speakers to boot, Miles always had a little glowing green man somewhere around him. 

_It's not_ about _efficiency, D._

_With the current placement of the item, you will be required to move the table at least twice a week for space for Sunday's sparring sessions. In addition to that all residents will be forced to alter their foot traffic patterns to avoid the obstruction, resulting in a marked increase in distance one must travel between the bathroom and the kitchen._

_It's not about efficiency, D!_

_It is also entirely possible that..._

“It's not about efficiency, Delta!”

It was the mixture of actually shouting and a mental prod at Delta that kept the AI from rebutting for a long moment. With a sigh Miles returned his attention to the kitchen and the beckoning scent of coffee.

He even made it to the pot before he felt Delta cautiously prodding at the edges of his mind, searching for something. It wouldn't have been hard for the AI to just reach into Miles's head and figure out just what he was looking for, but Delta was nothing if not polite, and he wouldn't cross the lines they had set for themselves without permission. And they both knew Miles wasn't in the mood to give it right then. His focus was on fishing one of the new mugs out of the box on the counter and waiting while the coffee finished brewing. 

_York..._

The AI defaulting to his Project Freelancer codename halted Miles with his hand on the way to the coffee pot. 

_Yeah?_

_I... Do not understand why my suggestion that a more efficient layout would be so offensive to you._

With a sigh Miles grabbed the carafe and poured himself a full mug, leaving just enough room to scoop two spoonfuls of sugar in to sweeten it up a bit. Coffee prepared, Miles moved to a bare stretch of counter and levered himself up to sit on the edge. After a long sip that let him revel in the heat and loathe the flavor even as he blessed his access to it, Miles organized his thoughts to answer.

_What we're aiming for here isn't an attempt to make this place feel... like a base. Bases want efficiency. The Mother of Invention wanted efficiency. The UNSC loves efficiency. But this? This place isn't meant for any of that, D. This is supposed to be..._

_A resting point?_ Delta suggested.

_Yes and no. Resting point makes it sound like we don't mean to be here long._

_But Sigma and..._

_We'll cross that bridge when we come to it,_ Miles repeated as he often had these last two weeks. _But here, this place, it's more than that. It's our space. It's a place to recover and grow. It's... a home. Homes aren't about logic and efficiency, Delta. They're about feeling comfortable and welcome and loved just by stepping through a door. It's about that warmth I get in my stomach when I enter and David is here, smiling happily up at me._

Delta didn't respond for a bit, just sat back to try and process all of this information in the way he always did. Miles felt the calculations in the well worn channels of his mind, and he didn't reach for them. It was easy to fall into them these days. Had been so much easier since he had fully given himself over to Delta not once, but twice. He wouldn't say he felt smarter now, but he knew that he could do things that he never had been able to before Delta, or even a month back. 

_It is about the sense of belonging, love and family,_ Delta observed just after Miles had another sip. 

_When you put it that way, yeah. That's exactly what it's about._

_And with each thing you acquire and place, each material possession that is meant either for form or function, you hope to achieve a more complete sense of connection with your new status in the world, and with your partners._

_I..._

_I can understand this sentiment, Miles. There is a part of me that wishes I could achieve something similar with the other pieces of my full self._

Miles carefully set his cup aside and when he felt Delta settle down more firmly into his nerves, felt the AI come completely into his body, Miles wrapped his arms across his chest and squeezed. It was the closest thing to physical comfort he could offer the other being within himself. 

They stayed there in silence for a while, Miles's arms wrapped around himself and Delta, and neither of them spoke. They were there, coffee mug abandoned and cold by their thigh when the door opened and David and Nic came in, both wearing smiles. 

“We're home,” David called, crossing immediately to Miles to press their lips together. 

“Yeah,” Miles responded when David pulled back, and he could feel Delta speaking beside him, sharing his voice. “Welcome home.”

“You should have come with us,” Nic added from where he was leaning against the fridge. There was a flash of purple behind his eyes. “We all would have liked that.”

“Next time,” Miles promised, and he smiled when he felt Delta leap at the idea. “Next time, I promise.”

_Home is as much the people as the place,_ Delta decided as Nic strode across the kitchen toward them. 

_It is. But you've got a lot of time to learn that, D. We all do._

For the first time he felt Delta actively linger in his nerves as Nic kissed Miles, full and deep, before taking his hand and coaxing him from the counter. Nor did the AI flee as he followed Nic toward the mattress where David was already waiting for them. Something in him didn't move to ask Delta for privacy. Instead as he found himself pushed down onto the mattress he clung to Delta's unique burn in his nerves and held him there. 

After all, he was as much a part of this relationship as Miles was.

_Thank you,_ Delta whispered, his voice barely there. 

_You so much as hint at efficiency, I will pull you for a week._

Then thought was replaced by Nic's hands and David's lips and neither Miles nor Delta cared in the slightest.


	4. Connections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nic is far more perceptive than he is given credit for, and takes the chance to set some ground rules with Miles and Delta.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> People wanted more of this. I wanted more of this. Delta was practically begging for more of this. So more of this. Takes place the morning after ‘Efficiency.’

“We need to talk.”

Nic watched as Miles went rigid, and there was a small part of him that wanted to chuckle at the alarmed look on Miles's face. Not that he was too surprised. There was something about that phrase being said by a lover that just set someone on edge. Yet the fact that Miles flinched the way he did probably had a lot to do with the quick green flashes in his otherwise gray eyes. They were more frequent than Nic had ever seen with PFL, and that worried him to no small degree. 

“You know, if you keep looking at me like that, I'll start to worry,” Miles observed as he sipped at his coffee. His voice, like Nic's, was pitched low so neither of them would wake David. The last thing they needed was to drag him into this conversation early.

“The truth is, I'm worried,” Nic sighed, frowning as Miles tried to hide his expression behind his mug. 

“About?”

_They know what about,_ Theta reassured him and Nic felt something like a gentle, supportive hand on his shoulder. 

_I don't know whether I should feel insulted that they're lying, or annoyed that they'd think we wouldn't notice._

_So far as we know David didn't notice,_ Theta pointed out. _Even you weren't certain until I reviewed your memories, and I wasn't certain until I saw Delta and Miles's reactions._

_That doesn't make it any better._

Theta thrummed with agreement and silent support as Nic sighed and frowned at Miles. The way that Delta flashed behind Miles's eyes and the way Miles shifted was... less than heartening. 

“You should have asked.”

And there, that was the fear and guilt he'd expected flashing across Miles's face. “I... I don't...”

“We've been together for a very long time now, Miles. I know what it feels like when your hands are on me. Except for our first time, I've never known you to hesitate, not for anything,” Nic sighed and accepted the resignation that finally lit in Miles's eyes. “And certainly not while your hand was wrapped around me.”

_Wow, look at how red he is,_ Theta observed, and Nic allowed himself an internal pleased chuckle. He'd _never_ been able to get Miles to blush before. David claimed to have managed it once, but Nic had never seen it for himself. 

“D, mind taking a step back for a moment?” Miles asked of the empty air, his voice sounding a little strained. Yet it didn't take long after the question was fielded before the red faded from Miles's face, which was really a shame. “Sorry, he's... sensitive about what happened.”

“So am I, but I think it's in an entirely different way,” Nic observed. “Though I suppose that, for you, having a relatively pure mind running next to yours has to be difficult. But that doesn't change the fact that you should have asked. And now, you need to explain.”

Miles sighed, his hand coming up to scratch through his hair. There was a flash of green behind his eyes, and Nic wished he could be in his lover's head, know what he and Delta were talking about. At length, though, he nodded to himself, some agreement reached, and returned his attention to Nic.

“I'm sorry. Delta... It was a rather sudden decision on both of our parts. He, isn't adjusting to the knowledge about Alpha very well. Never has...”

Theta shuddered in the back of Nic's mind in agreement. 

“None of us are,” Nic allowed, letting himself glance into the other room and the bed where David was still stretched out. “But we have to learn to. The AIs, they are more set in their ways, more narrowly defined in their very beings. It's our responsibility to help them process.”

“I was trying to...” Miles started, and then halted just as fast when Nic raised a hand. 

“And I don't think letting them ride our nervous systems so deeply with any frequency is going to be good for any of us. No one knows the long term effects of implanting a full AI, much less a fragment of one. So there have to be some rules here. Rules meant to protect Delta and Theta as much as us. The first rule is moderation. Delta, I'm leaving it up to you to make sure that neither you nor Miles allow deep nerve riding too frequently,” Nic insisted, and he saw an answering flash of green before Miles nodded. 

“We understand,” Miles sighed. “I guess 'not during sex without asking first' goes without saying?”

“Indeed,” Nic chuckled. “An addendum to that is if _either_ of you _ever_ attempts to convince Theta to do the same thing, I will deal with you myself.”

_It's okay,_ Theta breezed in his mind, _I'm not really interested in what you three get up to. Too much sweating and grunting and David seems to get hurt a lot from the noises he makes. I can't imagine why you guys want to do it, much less while Delta would want to involve himself._

_It's... complicated. But you'll forgive me if I don't want to explain._

_I do._

“We wouldn't try it,” Miles promised. “Any other rules and orders, sir?”

“Is Delta riding you now?” Nic asked, unable to resist the question. 

“I... Well... Um...” 

The sputtering was all Nic needed. He strode forward a step and took the mug from Miles's hand, setting it gently aside on the counter. Miles stared at him, gray eyes wide and tinged with a more constant green light than Nic had ever seen in them before as Nic put a hand on the counter on either side of Miles, effectively trapping him. 

“Well then, if you're going to educate him about our relationship, you really should have started with something more basic than you did. What you did to Delta yesterday was like throwing a child who didn't know how to swim into the deep end of a pool. You have to start with the shallows first.”

Miles's eyes were wide, shocked, and his whole body tense in a way that Nic had never known from him before, and something in his own body told him that was because there was more of Delta in that stance than there was of Miles. Which was just as well for what he was intending. He leaned in close, enjoyed the way that the other man shuddered just before he let a hand come up from the counter and curl around the back of Miles's head. His fingers tangled into the short brown hair before he pulled his lover closer and pressed their lips together. 

The differences were easy to pick out. Except for the first time Miles had always been supremely confident when they kissed, and even their first one had been relatively confident, held back only by Miles's fear of rejection. What he found now, though, was a man who was far out of his depth. His eyes were still open wide, his head couldn't seem to figure out just what angle to tilt at, and when Nic ran his tongue teasingly along Miles's lips, Delta gasped. That was something Nic had always wanted to experience, and it sent a trill of pleasure down his spine. Still, he took the opportunity offered to him and deepened the kiss. 

Delta might have been a quick study on many topics, but here he was fumbling and new, and Nic smiled into the kiss, letting it draw out until it seemed Delta was starting to make some connections to what he should do. With that Nic pulled away and smiled widely at the dazed and yet pleased expression on Miles's face.

“I hate you,” Miles declared at length, his voice breathy and his eyes flashing with something like annoyance and pleasure. “You're going to work, here you and Delta are, leaving me in a pretty bad state.”

“I guess you can give him a lesson on personal pleasure,” Nic chuckled, and reveled in the way the low timbre of his voice made Miles shudder. “There's a shower and David won't be up for at least an hour. Really, if you're going to educate your AI on being more human, you have to cover all the lessons.”

“You enjoyed that,” Miles accused, and Nic smiled wider. 

“Really? What gave me away? No, don't answer, you look a little... dazed,” Nic observed as he backed up a step. “I never had a chance to kiss you when you were a fumbling, all-but-virgin, Miles. Are you really going to deprive me of that now that the opportunity presents itself?”

“Hate you,” Miles repeated in that tone that really meant 'I love you so much and how in the galaxy did I get lucky enough to meet you.' 

“I know,” Nic chuckled, which meant 'I know.' “Anyway, there was one last order for you. Delta is to stay out of your memories of sex and pleasure. If you're both serious about allowing him to participate in this relationship, and you seem to be, you are not depriving me and David of the chance to teach him using your body as a demonstration.”

“You're just getting all sorts of kicks out of this,” Miles growled, and Nic nodded.

“Absolutely. And I plan to keep getting them for as long as possible.”


	5. Understanding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David's far more perceptive and knowledgeable than any of them give him credit for, and knows that sometimes rules for one person don't fit well for another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, my excuse for this one is that I wanted more of this, and wanted it to be like this. Wanted Wash to have this moment, and damn it was fun. I swear, next time around there will be a different topic. I will stop beating this like a dead horse.

Washington had never been a light sleeper. Okay, maybe in the grand scheme, when compared to the average person, he had always been a light sleeper. It was something you developed when you were in the military. If you didn't wake quickly your sergeant tended to make you an example for a while. In Project Freelancer F.I.L.S.S. got downright cruel to people who didn't make their alarms. Learning how to wake up easily was a survival technique more than anything else. 

David, on the other hand, slept lightly. More than lightly. He barely slept to be honest. There was too much going on in his head, too much damage from Epsilon, for it to be an easy thing. It was easier when the three of them were together, when Miles and Nic held him close and the warmth of their bodies soothed him and the echoes of a dead AI in his mind. It wasn't even too bad when he had only Miles, the older man's legs twisted in with his, their arms together while they lay there, tangled in the sheets. 

Neither of them seemed to realize that he couldn't sleep easily when they weren't there. That the slightest sounds woke him. That the only reason they thought he was 'sleeping' after they both got up some mornings was because David withdrew into his own mind, actively trying to put the pieces back into some semblance of order so he could function for the day. They didn't know that once they left him he laid there, listening silently. 

They didn't realize that David had just rested there, cuddled into the blankets, and listened to the whole whispered conversation Nic had with Miles regarding Delta. 

Not that he was surprised. He loved them both, desperately, but they still saw him as a broken man. Maybe they were right. 

That didn't mean his eyes didn't work. That he hadn't seen the lingering green in Miles's eyes when they had been together. Or that he hadn't recognized the differences. 

But the conversation was over before he was allowed to join, and David watched through lidded eyes as Miles slipped into the bathroom. Listened to the sound of the shower starting and the low moan that followed it. 

With a sigh David threw the blankets off and snuck into the bathroom. He lingered by the door as he heard another shuddering gasp. Apparently Delta and Miles had opted to take Nic's advice to heart. All the better for him, then. David stripped off the t-shirt and boxers he slipped in and silently approached the shower. 

“Oh...” Miles's voice gasped, but the tone was wrong. It was needy, weak, and drawn out in a way that wasn't like Miles at all. No, that sound, regardless of it being in Miles's voice, was from Delta.

“Morning,” David whispered through the curtain, hoping that by pitching his voice low he wouldn't scare the two. 

“D... David?” The first sound was Delta, and the full use of his name Miles through and through. “You're up early.”

“Heard the shower and thought I'd join you. You don't mind, right?” David asked.

“Uh, well...” Miles started to answer, and David chuckled. 

“I was asking Delta. If it's all the same to you.”

Silence was his reward. Then a strained and gasping, “Please?”

The curtain twitched open just a bit, and David stepped over the edge of the tub and resisted a sigh of pleasure just to be in the moist, hot air of the shower. It took nothing to close the curtain behind him before he moved forward and wrapped his arms around his lover's body from behind. There was a moment of tension in Miles, and then it melted away as the older man leaned back against him.

“You knew?” Miles asked, a touch of Delta in his voice. 

“Of course,” David chuckled, pressing a kiss into a wet shoulder blade. “The moment I kissed you.”

“And you did not mind?” The syntax marked Delta taking more control, that and the nervousness in his voice. 

“Nic is right that it would have been better to ask, but...”

“But?” Miles prompted as David let his fingers start brushing over his stomach. 

“Nic's relationship with Theta is... different from what you two have. They... are a team. You two mesh better, move more toward being a unified whole. To be honest, you and Delta were the ideal the Director was working toward with the whole project. A single unit capable of more than the constituent parts could, as a team or on their own,” David sighed, leaning his head against Miles's back. 

“We...” Miles started to ask, and the question turned into a brief, choked gasp when David loosely wrapped a hand around his lover's erection. 

“Are what you are. Everyone reacted differently to their AI, connected to them differently. Nic's... experiences with Theta results in a different understanding of, and relationship with, his AI. He can't understand what Delta needs, what he wants out of this,” David whispered, slowly starting to pump and smiling faintly as Miles leaned more of his weight against him and let out a shuddering gasp. 

“And you are... oh oh my... certain of this?” Delta gasped, hips bucking forward into David's firm grip. 

“Epsilon left a lot behind,” David admitted before lightly biting Miles's shoulder and listening to the way Delta gasped with his lover's voice. “Including a bit of you. A bit of all the other AIs. Maybe it isn't enough to be certain, but it makes it... easier to understand what all the AI fragments are like. You are all very different, unique. Each with your own wants and needs.”

Another bite and Delta groaned deeply with all the force of Miles's voice. There was something uniquely arousing about the sound. But he wasn't here for that. 

“What do I want...?”

“To be something more than you are. Far more. Closer to human,” David provided. “All of you want that, but you more than the others in many ways. Pure, compartmentalized logic yearning to be something more than that. Wanting to feel. Paired with a man that lives with his heart, not his head.”

“David,” Delta gasped, his hand coming down to wrap around David's. It squeezed lightly, and David smiled into Miles's shoulder again, chuckling. That sort of forwardness was more in line with Miles than it was with Delta, but David obeyed anyway and put more strength into his grip. 

“If you two weren't paired, maybe it would be different, but you are,” David breathed, bringing his other hand into play to tweak one of Miles's nipples. That earned him a new, deeper moan. “But Miles can only take you so far, Delta. There is only so much you can learn by drowning yourself in his memories, his thoughts, his very _being_.”

“David,” Delta sighed with Miles's lips and his hips were bucking faster, his head tilting back to David's shoulder, and his whole body shaking. “David, please... I...”

“What you need now, Delta,” David purred, leaning in to bite along Miles's neck one last time. Delta groaned and panted and David could feel the other man all but melting into his arms as his body began to shake with a tension that David was familiar with. “Is experience.”

The timing of the word couldn't have been better. Another strong pump and there was heat exploding over his hand as Miles's voice went from groaning and panting to an actual shout to rival what David knew himself to be prone to. David shifted his feet just enough to take Miles's weight as his lover sagged against him. Still he kept his hand pumping, working Delta and Miles through the moment, chuckling all the while at the beatific expression Miles wore, something completely unlike him. 

“Give it time, Delta. Everything you need comes with experience, which only comes with time. And so long as you're with Miles, with me, with Nic, we'll see to you getting all the experience you need. All you have to do is ask.”

“And what is it that you need?” Delta gasped as he straightened just enough to meet David's gaze with Miles's one good eye. 

“Time.”

And something else that he didn't quite know how to put in to words. 

“Well, between now and when you find that... Allow me to seek a new experience?” Delta asked, straightening fully and turning to look down at David. 

David raised an eyebrow in question, and then found himself holding his breath as the other man went to his knees before him. 

“Fucking hell, don't offer what you can't handle,” he groaned as he looked down, meeting York's upturned gaze. But the light there, the amusement written in that smile, was all Miles. 

“Don't worry, David. D and I will treat you good. He'll have the best coach possible for this.”

“That's what I'm afraid of,” David gasped as a tongue flicked over the tip of his erection and he let his finger tangle into Miles's wet hair. “You were enough of a perfectionist as it was.”


	6. Illness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David gets sick and Miles doesn’t have the first clue of how to handle it.

_I believe_ , Delta observed, voice clearly meant to be soothing and it was absolutely anything but,  _that at this phase you are supposed to check his temperature._

_How am I supposed to do that?_

He could feel more than hear Delta sigh in the back of his mind before he felt the consciousness of the AI move to curl around his arm and reach out. David, pale and sick looking, flinched away from the brief touch against his forehead, and Miles snatched his hand back, yelping in shock at how warm David's skin was. 

_Yes, I would say that David has a high grade fever._

_What do we do?!_

“Aspirin,” David groaned from where he still lay on the bed, covered in a mound of every last blanket they had. “Water.”

“You have a headache too?” Miles whimpered in pity.

That drove another groan from David, maybe a touch more frustrated than simply miserable. 

_Aspirin is a commonly used drug to reduce or even break a fever_ , Delta provided.  _I do believe Nic keeps a bottle of it in the bathroom medicine cabinet_ . 

“R-right,” Miles agreed, because now that Delta mentioned it he was certain he had seen it there. They'd gone through a bottle in the first month from the headaches Miles and Nic got when they pulled D or Theta for David's sake. But that habit had stopped as Theta became more necessary for Nic's work, and Delta more anxious to be pulled from Miles's head.

“Just... stay there, David. I'll get...”

_Wait_ , Delta insisted, and at the AI's tension Miles froze. He tilted his head to the side and closed his eyes and let himself sink into the expanded sensory processing power Delta submitted his senses to. 

_Nic_ , Delta decided at last, identifying a specific series of creaks beyond the door. 

Miles scrabbled to his feet and bolted toward the door, throwing the lock back and swinging the door open even as Nic stared at him, shocked, keys poised just short of where the lock had been. 

“Miles?” Nic asked, concern in his voice. “Did something...”

“David's  _sick_ ,” Miles whined, grabbing Nic's arm and dragging him into the room. “His head is really hot and his skin is really pale and he's cold even though he's under  _every_ blanket. Delta says we should give him aspirin.”

Nic stared at him for a long moment and then shook his head, chuckling lightly. 

“Don't laugh. He's sick. He could die!”

_I believe it is merely a common flu, Miles. As such your behavior would fall into the area of overreacting. Perhaps even severely overreacting._

_Or maybe you're severely_ under _reacting_ . 

“He'll be fine,” Nic assured York, smiling softly. 

Why the hell was everyone so calm!?

“But he's...”

“Go into the bathroom and get the aspirin. Give him two with a full glass of water, alright?”

“You're sure?”

His lover nodded and kissed his forehead. “Trust me. I'm going to make David some soup, but he needs you right now to deal with his pain. Understand?”

“And after?”

“After I want you to get a wash cloth, soak it in cold water, wring it out well, and then fold it into thirds on the short side so that it's like a band. You want to put that over his forehead, alright?”

_Why a wet cloth?_

_I would imagine it is soothing against a fevered brow. But if you desire I can do a search on..._

_Yeah, can't afford to zone out like that when Nic's depending on me._

Delta pinged an affirmative as they headed for the bathroom. That being said, Miles didn't get the medicine cabinet open before Delta had control of his arm, pulling the aspirin bottle out for him.   
  
“I can see it myself, D.”

_Your current levels of agitation are not conducive to..._

_Please, I'm just worried. I've never dealt with a sick person before. Especially not someone I care about. I'm just... I'm just so helpless to help him without Nic._

_Your heart is in the right place. That is what matters._

If only that was ever enough.


	7. Trivia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The simple fact of the matter is that there are things that they can’t all share. And one of them is a favorite pastime for them all.

There were a few things in the world more relaxing than the mindless ease of the sort of television shows that came on bracketing the evening news. There was less substance than the afternoon soap operas that Nic knew David had taken to watching, and yet less drivel as well. Not that he often had the chance to just sit back and enjoy the cheerful, mindless pleasure of game shows very often. Normally he found himself too busy working or running errands to just sit down with David at their table, hold his lover close, and challenge David to the title of ‘trivia king.’  
  
“Rutabaga,” David announced happily as the host of the show they were watching, some trivia show based in the core colonies that Nic had never seen before today, asked about some strange Old Earth vegetable.  
  
“How did you know that?” Nic questioned, kissing his boyfriend’s neck lightly. “That’s a strange thing to know.”  
  
“Epsilon knew it,” David explained. “The Director was from Earth, remember?”  
  
“Right,” Nic frowned, trying his best not to shift uncomfortably. There were a few topics they still didn’t talk about like they should, and Epsilon was one of them.   
  
_What happened to him was particularly traumatic_ , Theta whispered softly in the back of North’s mind. _You still don’t like talking to them about what happened with Nicky, or how I reacted when we first met Lacey._  
  
 _Can we not remind me about those things?_ Nic sighed at his AI mentally.   
  
_And then there is how what happened to Carolina affected…_  
  
Nic wordlessly reprimanded Theta, and almost immediately the AI silenced itself. There were sensitive subjects for all of them, they got that. It was just better when neither of the AI’s decided to prod at that. And by neither Nic really just meant Theta. The new levels of integration that Miles and Delta were achieving were not only scary, but leading to less social snafus with Delta. So that, Nic supposed, was an upside.   
  
“Oh, and this one is _The Great Escape_ ,” David answered. Strange, Nic hadn’t even heard the question. “God Miles loves that movie too much. I’m almost glad we don’t have his external with all the videos. There is only so much Old Earth culture that I care to absorb.”  
  
Nic started to open his mouth, only to have Theta chime an alert in the back of his mind. There was movement in the hall. Immediately Nic was reaching under the table for the pistol that was waiting in a small nook that he had made. Miles wasn’t due back for another two hours from his job of the week, which was cleaning a grocery store. The perk was that he got an employee’s discount on their food, and decent pay. Hopefully he’d get to keep the job but it was never a certain thing. In fact, until this point, it was very much the opposite of that.   
  
“What’s up?” David asked quietly, as if sensing Nic’s tension. Or maybe he was just picking up on Nic moving to grab the gun. “Hear something?”  
  
 _The stride length is within the margin of error for Miles, but it’s hard to tell for sure. They’ve stopped at our door._  
  
“Theta’s picked up someone by the door,” Nic said just as quietly, pulling the gun out and getting to his feet just in time for the lock to click back and the door to open.   
  
“Guys I’m ho-ooooooly shit!” Miles yelped from the door as Nic’s gun snapped up to point when the door opened. Immediately Nic was lowering it again, and quickly moving to put the gun down and help Miles with the large bag of groceries in his hand.   
  
“Fuck, Nic, a guy comes home to surprise his boyfriends with treats, and he gets a gun in his face,” Miles snapped as Nic moved forward to take the bag and carry it to the counter in the kitchen. There was a flash of green in his eyes that meant Delta was probably trying to comfort Miles as Nic moved past him to head into the hall and pick up the predicted second bag.   
  
“Hey, I still love you,” David called from the living room as Nic kicked the door closed behind him.   
  
“I know you… The PIllar of Autumn.”   
  
“Oh god,” Nic sighed as he put the second bag down, not bothering to look at Miles as his boyfriend answered the game show announcer. “David you’ve got to…”  
  
“2256,” Miles provided for another barely audible question from the television.   
  
“They’re doing it again,” David whined from the living room table. “Nic, I was having _fun_.”  
  
“Delta, it’s not fair when you’re playing,” Nic found himself reminding the AI that had clearly become riveted by the show from the slow way Miles was making his way toward the television.   
  
“I would disagree, Nicolas,” Delta answered with Miles’s lips. “I enjoy a good… The Sangheili Accords of War.”  
  
“I was having so much fun,” David complained again, turning to mute the tv.   
  
Which, as Nic watched, only meant that Delta moved Miles so he could better see the screen.   
  
“You know, Theta always promises not to get involved when we’re watching these. Why can’t you behave as well, Delta?” Nic sighed, shaking his head as he started unloading the groceries.  
  
“I cannot help the fact that I enjoy such games as… The War of the Roses.”  
  
“David just turn it off already!” Nic groaned, shaking his head.   
  
_He really is a know-it-all isn’t he?_ Theta sighed in Nic’s head.   
  
“The worst kind of one,” Nic agreed out loud as he watched David turn off the television at last.   
  
“I was enjoying that!” Miles protested, and Nic could hear the pout in his voice. Well, it served him right.  
  
“When you and Delta stop ruining the fun we can all watch together,” David assured their lover. “Until then, well… no fun.”  
  
Nic could already tell they were going to cuddle their boyfriend back to cheerful tonight. Not, of course, that he found himself minding.


	8. Cookies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wash has unexpected company and a goal he never expected to have. But it will be fun.

Waking was always the hardest part, truth to be told. But nearing on four months after their settling down, David thought it was getting easier to wake. Easier to breathe. Easier not to feel the walls closing in around himself when he pushed them back. He had given up on looking for a job months back, finding too much of his life and experience clouded by the experiences of one Doctor Leonard Church. Time made the memories easier to handle, easier to face, and usually easier to push out of more often than not. But freedom was something he couldn’t truly achieve. 

How did one live their life in the literal shadow of another person? David hadn’t figured that out, and it meant it was far too easy to find himself living his life in the limits of the apartment. No amount of practice in the safety of its walls could prepare him to face the dangers of having attacks come upon him in a dangerous situation. All it had taken was one instance of almost blacking out from an intrusive memory while trying to cross the street with his lovers to know he wasn’t ready to go out alone yet. If they hadn’t been there, well, who would have pulled him out of the way of that car? 

Which, he supposed, was what made this situation such a strange one. 

The letter had been waiting when he had awoken. Some mornings he managed to be up while Nic was still around, but last night had been difficult. Not that he could put a finger on what specifically had gone wrong. Something had trapped him in the bits Epsilon had left him of Alpha’s torture, and sleep had only come when Miles had passed Delta over and the AI had taken efforts to shield David’s mind. Somewhere in the night the AI had left him, though, and so David had awoken dazed and alone in his head, with Mile’s fingers brushing through his hair. And there had been the letter on the table, his name upon it printed in Nic’s strong, confident hand. 

“What is it?” he had asked Miles, and he had gotten only a shrug in response. 

For the longest time David had ignored the letter, insisting to Miles that if there was anything he needed to know, he would have had his own letter, or it would have been addressed to them or Nic would have told him earlier. But now, an hour after Miles had left for work and David had all but the laundry done, he found he could wait no longer. 

The thing wasn’t actually sealed closed, the closing flat merely folded back into the envelope. Concerned and a touch paranoid (Epsilon had left him that as well), he licked the sealant strip just in case, and came back with a terrible taste in his mouth and a tackiness at his touch. Which meant, of course, that Miles hadn’t tried steaming the thing open, thank goodness. Of course figuring that out meant that David could no longer delay and had to face the piece of paper and strange heaviness in his hand. 

As he drew forth the paper, the source of the weight became obvious. Nervously he turned the envelope over and shook Theta’s chip into his hand. Already he could feel his body shaking at the almost impossible weight of the chip. Still, he opened the letter with one hand and marvelled at the words thereon. Two different sets of writing were there. The first was clearly North’s, the latter David assumed as Theta’s. 

_fter last night he said he wanted to spend the day with you. Watch out for him, okay?_

_Please please PLEASE say yes!_

David swallowed hard at the words and, fingers shaking, he reached up behind his head and slid the chip home. At first, like always, the pushing home of the chip gave him a small jolt of pain. After that he had to groan at the strange cold in his head followed by a brilliant heat and a flash of light in his eyes as he felt Theta boot up and slide into the torn pathways of his mind created by Epsilon’s rampage. There was half a second of deep awareness of how uncomfortable Theta was in his mind, how squeamish he got over the damage Epsilon had done. Then Theta was a distant, separate entity merely housed in his mind. 

_Sorry,_ Theta whispered shyly in his mind. _I need time to adjust. I’m better now, and glad to see you okay._

Okay was a relative term and they both knew it. Not that either would say it aloud, so to speak. So David let the comment slip and focused on something else entirely: the reason Theta even cared to be present. And, in true AI fashion, Theta was responding before David had even finished deciding the question was there to ask. He had some experience with it from back on the escape from PFL, but it was hardly as if he had Epsilon around long enough to understand what a fully functional AI could be like. 

_Thing is, you know Nic’s birthday is coming up, right?_

David flushed at the reminder. No, for all that his AI altered memory was good for things, keeping track of the days was so hard at this point. How, though, had he managed to forget something so important?

_So it is important? I thought so. Nic’s head is filled with memories about birthdays. So I wanted to do something special. Since he had no family left to do that for him, right? I thought maybe you could help me._

For a moment David found himself forced to close his eyes and breathe. Theta’s excitement for the whole concept reminded him of his first set of holidays with his lovers. Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries had all worked him up to no end. They were never things he had shared with serious partners before. Theta’s excitement rushed through David’s body, threatening to trigger memories. Then Theta was there, a barrier against the pull, a small presence holding him up, but so very strong and determined. Theta, David had long since learned, was far better at this than Delta was. More creative, and with a very protective personality or instinct, perhaps learned from North. 

Sheltered in Theta’s presence, David tried to let himself be excited. 

Excitement was so hard to muster some days. 

_How can I help you then?_

_I know you’re not really great at cooking, but Nic remembers his mom making peanut butter cookies. We have everything we need for them. I need hands and secrecy to help me. And you always need company after a really bad day. I hoped we could help each other. Will you help? Oh please? Please please please say you will._

In the face of such joy, how could he ever say no? 

* * * * * *

Messes happened.

If nothing else, Project Freelancer had taught him that. It was a point brought even further home by watching York attempt to prepare anything consumable, including coffee (which was the only edible thing York managed beyond sandwiches). 

Messes happened, it was a part of life. They came in a hundred thousand forms, both physical and metaphorical. And, David was finding, few he had ever been through figured on the same scale of peanut butter cookies. He had been so careful with everything, very little flour had spilled on the floor or table or counters. The eggs were in the right place. Hell,he had even gotten the dough folded together and formed into little balls in preparation for baking. 

But how, for the love of god, was there peanut butter everywhere? 

_That’s an exaggeration,_ Theta whined in his head, and David thought he could feel the AI pouting. 

David cast his eyes just a little bit up and stared in accusation at the smear of peanut butter on the ceiling, far beyond his reach. Then his eyes went to a cabinet door. A stretch of counter. His own elbow. 

That isn’t everywhere. 

There wasn’t time for David to respond, even at the speed of thought, for Theta went very still in David’s mind. He had heard something and was radiating sorrow. 

_What’s up?_ David asked, frowning, and then he heard it too. Keys. David had just enough time to pout at how unfair the timing was before the apartment door opened and he was faced with Nic. 

The older man stood there for a long moment, staring at David. What was he supposed to do now? 

“What?” Nic started to ask, his mouth hanging a bit ajar. David shuffled nervously from foot to foot as he watched his lover fumble for words. “What happened here? David, is that peanut butter _on your nose_?” 

“We wanted to make you cookies, as an early birthday present,” David explained, before getting a bit frustrated. “What are you even doing home so soon? We should have a few hours left! You ruined the surprise.”

For a while Nic was silent, then he stepped fully into the apartment, laughing as he closed the door with his foot. 

“Power went out. They sent us home. Sorry,” he chuckled. “If you want I can leave you two to finish. But you have to let me help clean up after. Deal?”

_Well?_ David asked Theta. _You could go back to him and finish this together if you wanted._

_This is our gift,_ Theta insisted. We’re in this together.

David smiled warmly at that. “We agree to your terms, Nic. And… welcome home.”

For the first time, the words felt right to say.


	9. Wi-Fi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> York and Delta reconnect in a way that only they can do.

Truth be told, insomnia has always been an issue for Miles. Time and time again over the years he’s had bad days, weeks, even once a month of nights when sleep had been hard to find. Tonight, though, was bad. Worse than bad. No amount of tossing, turning could help him. No rest could be coaxed from him, not even when a sleepy David placed a kiss on his brow. Maybe it was the heat build up this summer, or perhaps it was the stress from Tex’s message that Florida had been on the prowl on their planetary hideout. There was even the possibility that it came from the fear that his boss was about to fire him, or how distant David has been the last two days, his focus seemingly never on what was before him. All Miles knew was that tonight would be one of those sleepless nights. 

Slowly Miles extracted himself from the tangle of arms and legs and the light sheet draped over their bodies. To wake David now when it had taken so long to lull him to sleep would be terrible. Waking Nic after the hellish week his lover has experienced at work would almost be worse. Those facts, alone or together, meant he could hardly risk the TV being on. His options came down to a bath, the kitchen, or… 

_Yes, the alternate would be best,_ Delta immediately agreed. _The armor could provide a nice distraction for us both._

_Why would I need a distraction with you here?_ Miles asked, slipping into the bedroom turned armor and weapon storage. 

_As you may have noticed, I have become far more proficient at reducing my processes for your sleep cycle. I am currently between major calculations and I will need time to really get up to speed, so to speak._

Miles huffed a quiet laugh as he closed the door behind him. The room was quite dark without the lights on, but he was more than familiar enough with the layout of everything to avoid stubbing toes. Still, when Delta gave him a wordless order to freeze, Miles did so without question. He knew his AI only sought the best for him and was probably constructing a map of the room. Instead he felt the connection between them almost diminish, felt Delta reaching in a way that Miles couldn’t quite describe. 

There was half a moment of a sensation of waiting before the lights that edge Miles’s armor slowly started to come up, and before they got anywhere near the glow they normally put out, there was a point of green radiance. For the first time since they’d come to this place Miles had a chance to look at his partner, and he was shocked to find the hologram was not the one he recognized.

His silence must have been too much, and Delta too nervous about his new appearance to probe directly into Miles’s mind to learn his opinion. As such Miles was treated to the image of the AI shifting nervously from foot to foot and looking away before Delta finally spoke up. 

“If you don’t like it I could,” Delta started to offer, but York shook his head, smiling as he took in the sight before him. 

At first it looked like a man, perhaps in his early thirties, with simple wire-frame glasses and long, dark hair caught up in a tie, and clad in slacks, shirt and a vest. There were, of course, similarities with the Director of Project Freelancer, mostly in the hair and the body shape. But those cheekbones belonged to Nic, and the angle of his eyes was most definitely David, and the square of Miles’s own jaw. 

Miles’s smile only grew as he really took it in, and by the light of Delta’s own hologram he moved forward, avoiding kicking Wash’s chest plate or stepping on North’s left boot. When he held out his hand, palm up, Delta stepped forward, his hologram hovering on top of it as if he stood there. It wasn’t a thing either of them had done before, it had been more Theta’s style. Yet there Delta stood, looking a bit bashful. 

“Then the new form is acceptable?”

“If this is what you want to look like, D, then I’m not going to complain,” Miles smiled warmly, moving to sit cross-legged on the floor. Delta moved with him, his light cast from York’s nearby rig. “In fact, I think you look damn handsome.”

The holographic man looked up to him, and the warmth of his smile was all Carolina, and Miles’s eyes stung for half a moment with tears. Delta must have sensed his mixed pleasure and sorrow and the smile faded. Instead the little man reached out and laid a holographic hand on Miles’s thumb. The light had no heat to it, of course, no pressure, but still Miles could feel his nerves tingle with the contact. The fuzzy buzz deep in the back of his mind told Miles the sensation wasn’t even remotely fantasized, but rather Delta taking the moment to stimulate the nerves themselves. 

For half a moment Miles couldn’t help but think terrible things about the potential of it, but the hologram was the question Miles found himself leaning toward. 

“How?” Miles asked. “I thought I had to be in the armor for your chip to allow interface with it.”

Delta considered this for a moment, tilting his head to the side. Interesting. Miles wasn’t used to his partner making overt human gestures most of the time, and his holographic gun was nowhere in sight. Clearly Delta had put a lot of conscious effort into this form, and York loved to see it. This was Delta reinforcing himself as a being separate from the Project and what it had done to him. What it had made him from. But that wasn’t the concern of the moment either. What he needed to be concerned with was the curious sensation from Delta, the mixture of pride and shyness from his AI partner. 

“We, as with all AI, were always configured to be able to easily interface with what are deemed ‘friendly’ or ‘secure’ electronic systems,” Delta explained, shifting his stance and tucking his hands behind his back. It was a very Director stance, but there are some things to be expected of someone who was, at his core, a part of said man. 

The very thought had Delta shuddering with revulsion, an emotion that was translated into Delta’s new form with actual motion. Part of Miles actually wanted to chuckle with pleasure at the sight. His little friend was becoming more and more human.The thought pleased Delta, and Miles had to fight to not smile over the way they were just feeding back on each other. Nic kept worrying, but Miles, well, he really didn’t mind. There was, after all, other chances he could play with like this. 

“So… if you can connect wirelessly to different things… want to try a little experiment?”

Delta looked up at him for half a moment before he relaxed the barrier between their minds, and Miles felt understanding flood into his partner. With it came an unfurling of their protections, and Miles closed his eyes, letting himself slip into the deeper state of connection. For a moment there was no Miles and no Delta. Then the two of them parted to a degree, and in his mind’s eye Miles felt Delta standing beside him, clasping his hand. When he turned to look, there was Delta, much like he had been as a hologram, but this time in full color. His eyes were the same radiant green as his hologram, but the rest of him looked as human as Miles himself was. 

“Are you ready?” Delta asked, his voice a soft pleasure in Miles’s mind that thrummed through his bones and filled every breath his body took with a sense of rightness. This was what they were, what they would be, and what they should become. 

“Yeah,” Miles whispered the word out loud, spoke it confidently in his mind, and gave in to the pull. 

Hand in hand he followed Delta out from the limitations of his fleshly body, and together they reached beyond. It would be nice, Miles thought as they searched together, to maybe be able to find some new fun in their lives.


	10. Reflections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the mornings North's mind is crystal clear, and he knows what it is he misses.

An argument could be made that his life, at this moment in time, is more or less perfect. An argument could be made that living here, in this shitty little apartment with far too little furniture and the actual bedroom being used to store the shells of an old life, he is living it up. Every morning he wakes up to a cheerful song from his other self, that rings through his whole body and rouses him better than a cup of coffee could ever hope to. Every night he falls asleep in the arms of his lovers, the precious presence in his mind cradled in his own fatigue. He cooks more than he ever had a chance to before, the sex is freeing and frequent, and the fights are rare at best. 

Maybe it’s that last part that makes it so hard, some days, to really be happy. 

There is very, very little about this place that Nicky wouldn’t hate, and those mornings when he wakes before Theta, those mornings like this morning, he realizes it. The table is in the middle of the room, and Nicky always used to say that tables like that need to be off center or it felt like the whole room revolved around them. A decor no-no she had decided when they were kids. An entire Thursday they had run through the house, pushing and pulling furniture until the tables weren’t centered. Never had he thought to really ask why it needed to be done, he just followed, obeyed, and enjoyed the smile it left on his sister’s lips. If she was here now, Nic thought as he rose from their mattress, she’d have a fit over the table in the middle of the room. Like it had some meaning that only she could see. 

The apartment isn’t quiet in the mornings. Sure, it’s nearly five am and he needs to get ready for work, but that doesn’t make the building quiet. The room is filled with the mingled sounds of Miles and David breathing. The fridge has kicked on in on in the kitchen, adding a low hum of a fan to the mix. The bathroom sink, if he listens really closely, seems to be dripping. For a moment Nic wonders if Delta has calculated the frequency of that. He makes a mental note to repair the leaky faucet when he gets home, and pads silently over to the dresser in the corner. It’s strange how his feet make no sounds as he moves, not even over creaky floorboards, but he’s had practice. Nicky was as light of a sleeper as David had become heavy, and the beginning days of PFL, before the ship even, he’d been bunked with her while they waited to start. Learning to be silent had been a survival skill because NIcky liked to sleep in and one wrong sound meant something heavy thrown at his head. 

There is a rasp as wood slides in its runners and the drawer comes out just enough for Nic to fish out his clothes for the day. Somewhere in the back of his head there is a faint grumble, sort of like the clicking-whirrs he knows old computers used to make on startup. Slowly Theta is rousing himself, and for a moment, Nic wants nothing less. A lot can be said about the wonder and support of his AI, about how much he loves little Theta and wants to protect him, about how Theta wants to protect Nic right back, but he knows once Theta is awake, is aware… 

Most days there is a faint haze in his mind. Not all of his mind, just some small corner of it. Smoke and fog pulled between Nic’s conscious mind and his subconscious desire for his twin. Even after all of this, even after their fight, even after all the things that were said and done, he still wants her at his side. Now, in the happiest time of his life, she should be here. Now when he has a home and lovers and the war isn’t something he has to fight, she should be here. Now when he’s alone in the darkness of the morning and tiptoeing through the house, she should be here to complain about the faint squeak of the bathroom door opening and closing. 

Theta doesn’t like him feeling like that. Theta doesn’t like him hurting. Theta doesn’t like… 

_Morning,_ the AI says cheerfully in his mind and it’s like the curtain is pulled. For a moment his mind fumbles after the threads of something, something important, something he’d been thinking about just seconds before. But it’s gone now. There feels like there should be an ache in his chest, but it’s gone now. There feels like there should be something he should be reaching for, but it’s gone now. 

“Morning,” he whispers fondly to his little friend, making sure the bathroom door is firmly closed before turning on the lights and moving to the sink. He can see himself in the reflection, and her. Nic frowns at the thought. 

This is what she chose, Nic has to remind himself, and he feels Theta radiating warmth and love in the back of his mind. At least he still has the little one here. 

“Thanks kiddo,” he chuckles before reaching out and touching the reflection. It’s purely academic, he tells himself. Every morning he gets up and does this, touches the mirror, strokes the curve of a cheek and taps the center of a forehead. 

“Wherever you are, sis, take care of yourself,” he whispers. 

With that he turns from the mirror to the shower. Time to get ready for the day.


	11. Young Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes the only thing David can do with what Epsilon left in his head is let it run its course. But the things he sees only give him pain.

There was a park near the city center. 

For reasons David didn’t want to consider, the throwaway comment from Nic caught his imagination. His heart beat faster, his mouth went dry, and the whole world closed in around him. A simple comment from Nic about the woman who hit on him every time he went to get groceries, and now David was here, sitting on a bench, eyes closed as he centered himself in a memory. 

If the last months had taught him anything, it was the difference between memories he had to submerge himself in to get back to being David, and the ones he could dismiss. The times the shard of Epsilon tangled itself into one of David’s own memories it was easy to shake the burr free without losing himself in the mess. In fact, many times these days the shard lingered under the surface of David’s own past like a splinter he couldn’t pull. It was the days he sunk into Alpha that David had to dismiss, and Leonard…

Those were the memories Epsilon seemed content to look at rather than live, and god help David if Epsilon didn’t drag him along for the ride. The constant pounding of waves of memory, dragging him under and drowning in a life that wasn’t his. And if David didn’t cave to the need, it only got worse. 

So when the shard of memory demanded it, David obeyed in hopes that he wouldn’t get swamped once again. Though he’d never say it, David feared the day he woke up more Leonard or Alpha than he was David. Any moments he could steal between then and now were precious. 

Still he found himself in the park. Or, perhaps, it was only sort of a park. The city was a young one, on a relatively recent colony world, and resources went to a lot of things before they went to a recreational area. Thus the place around him didn’t look like what he knew it should. The grass around his bench was a sparse, short thing that looked dangerous, as if it could cut. The trees were all no taller than him, and the playground equipment all seemed made from spare construction materials. Yet when he ran his fingers over the sunbaked stone of the bench, what he knew and could see was a bench, he found instead that he was touching wood, smoothed by many years of park goers and the elements themselves. As his fingers explored the false grain of the wood he could feel the cool brush of an autumn breeze through his hair, over his cheek. A small part of his brain reminded him that it was still summer, but he could taste the crispness of fall, of crackling leaves and blankets of acorns under trees. Interesting, because that wasn’t the sort of thing he’d experienced before. 

“Leonard?” 

The soft, warm voice made David flinch, and Leonard lift his eyes. All of the tension melted from his shoulders. A breath, held too long, passed his lips. His fingers reached up to run through his short, freshly cut hair. The only reason he did was to keep himself from rubbing at his freshly shaved jaw, which itched something fierce. Which wasn’t important. What was important right in that moment was the fact that she was here, right in front of him. He had called and she had answered. 

And god, how she looked. 

Allison had always been lovely. Since they were kids and she had driven off the bully from up the street who used to make him eat sand because he wouldn’t let the brute copy his homework. When she’d scared the jerk off she had held her hand out to him with a smile to help him to his feet. When she had introduced herself as Allie and asked if he was alright she had won his devotion for life. Here they were now, years later, Leonard as captivated now by her as he had been then. 

Okay, so maybe not. Could a woman like her be compared to the girl? Could Allie in her torn jeans, smiling wide, really compare to the slight tilt of Allison’s head? How could little blonde pigtails match longer locks caught up in a bun, the breeze teasing at any loose strands? Allison’s cheeks were kissed by the chill wind, reddened by the cool air. Her eyes were bright and curious, and that was more than enough for Leonard, especially since she was here, she had come. 

“Allie,” he greeted, standing to smile at her. “You’re here.”

“You asked me,” she pointed out, moving to his side. But sitting wasn’t his goal. So immediately he moved to her side. With a little gesture they turned down the path the bench had faced. They only made it a few steps with their hands brushing against each others’ before one of them moved to link their fingers. Which it was he honestly didn’t know or care. The touch was wonderful anyway. 

“I guess I did,” he agreed, his eyes on the path. Suddenly he felt so shy. His focus moved to the leaves in their path, the rustling and crunching as they moved over and around them. Every now and then there were sharper cracks and snaps of acorns under feet. One seemed to roll itself under his foot and Leonard stumbled forward, only to be caught in the strong arms of his girlfriend. 

Someone else would be embarrassed. The strength of her arms was always something Leonard appreciated. The support she offered was too great. 

“Hey, you okay there, Lennie?” Allison chuckled, righting him. “Careful, or you’ll get yourself hurt, nerd.”

He chuckled warmly in response. “I might.”

“And while I’ve got you trapped here… What’s with the shave?” 

Short answer, he wanted to look perfect for this, for her. Long answer…

“Felt like it,” Leonard mumbled. “Got a problem? Last few weeks you’ve been saying I looked scruffy.”

“I was teasing,” Allison laughed, but still her fingers stroked down his cheek with a tenderness she showed when they were alone. “Grow it back out. Once it is full it will make you look dignified, respectable even. Which was more than you had going for you before.”

“What a bitch,” he answered, his voice soft and fond in the way it always got when he called her that. Her response was soft laughter and pulling away from him, like she enjoyed teasing him like that. 

Once more they started walking, strolling the paths they had walked many times before. Each step made his heart pound harder, made the tension worse. Then there they were, looking at the fountain near the middle of the park. Today was about this. This place, this time. When he looked up he could see the soon to set sun, and the sight cheered him deeply. Perfect. 

“Still, haven’t told me why we’re here, Lennie.”

The weight in his pocket. Leonard pulled his hand from Allison’s and he started to go to his knee. Already her eyes were getting so huge and… 

“Lovely day, isn’t it?”

David blinked, his own eyes lifting in a strange mirror to Leonard’s so many decades ago. His own gaze met the one he loved. Miles stood there, looking down at him, a concerned expression on his face. And when David cast his eyes to the sky he understood why. He had sat down early in the morning, snuck out after his partners went to work. Now, though, he could see it was afternoon. There was even a cloth bag in Miles’s hand, which no doubt held the store bought lunch he was bringing back to the apartment to share with David. Which meant David had been here for hours, staring into the void of memory. 

“Y-yeah,” David admitted, blushing. “Sorry. I just…”

“This is the first time you’ve come out without one of us.”

David blinked, confused by the turn in the conversation. Here he had expected to be chided. So he tried to smile as Miles sat beside him. 

“You’ve been here most of the day, haven’t you?”

The truth was embarrassing, so David nodded, not trusting his voice. There was a part of him afraid that it might sound too much like that of a man named Leonard, in that moment where he was about to propose to the woman he would become too obsessed with. Would ruin their lives for. How many lives had been destroyed because she had said yes? Where would David be if she had said no? 

Scared once more, and with Leonard far too close to the surface, David leaned against his boyfriend. How much longer until he was entirely gone? How long until he had to tell him it really wasn’t better most of the time? How long until David was gone?


	12. Visual Aids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miles and Delta finish a project together and are happy at where it puts them.

Not everything about the freedom they had won was an improvement in Miles’s opinion. There were little things about life that weren’t as good. For one, Miles found that without the rigid discipline of the military, the insane schedules of PFL, and no concern that he might have to fight for his life at any given second meant that he struggled to keep in fighting shape. Mostly it was the fear of the retribution they were all certain would come some day from Florida that kept him and Nic so active. Then there was the coffee. Every morning after his first cup in the mess, Miles would break into the Director’s office while he was giving general orders or something, and steal a cup of the higher quality brew the man kept for himself. The locks got better every few weeks, of course, so York had to assume it was part of his training. Or, well, he enjoyed that, whether it was meant for that or not. 

It was only when he was bathed in the familiar, soft green light that he realized what it was that he truly missed. And that he needed it back. 

The easiest part, as it turned out, was to figure out how to do it. Among all of the other things that Delta knew how to do, make, and all the other general knowledge, was the information necessary to create the device that they required. The revision of the plan took two dedicated days of calculations and focus from Delta. For one thing the creation had to be smaller, easily portable, unremarkable by most people, and not draw too heavily on power so that it would be functional whenever he needed it. In addition to that it had to be constructed of things he could easily get his hands on. 

All in all, that is what made the completion of the prototype all the more exciting. 

_Do you think it will work?_

Miles had to chuckle at the question from his AI. Of course he believed it would work. After all, it was Delta’s construction. Delta had given his all for a week, spending parts of their nights for the last week working on putting the pieces it had taken them months to gather into the right configuration. The only work Miles had done was offer the nimble fingers, the sharp vision, and the patience that came with lockpicking. Once he had thought that Delta was the patient one, but the sheer excitement Delta felt at being able to have this outlet seemed to work against his normal patience. 

“Yes, D. The better question is if you’re ready.”

The watch was completely out of style, despite their best efforts, but Miles didn’t care. What mattered to him was the fact that the thing was heavier. With a smile he adjusted the band on his wrist, making sure the face was out. Once it was settled he sighed, his eyes closed. Here went everything and nothing at the same time. Eyes open once more, York pulled out a knob, twisted it, and pressed it back into place, powering up the supposed watch. Lights slowly flashed over the face, green crawling in patterns over the face until, at last, a familiar symbol appears in their place. 

Just like that his tension melted away, because the green light spread outward, projected from the small device until there was a smaller than normal hologram of the other part of himself. The other man that shared his. The one who loved him no matter what, even when they’re mad at each other.

“It works,” Delta observes, his voice a soft whisper from the watch, and god did Miles smile as he lifted his wrist higher to bring the small AI closer. 

“Yeah,” Miles agreed, “looks like I’m going to be able to carry a little genius with me everywhere.”

“I would point out that I have rarely been apart from you in all this time,” Delta countered, and hearing that voice out loud, calm and rational, actually made Miles laugh with delight. 

“I’m not sure Nic and David are going to appreciate you snarking them like that,” Miles warned, and that prompted Delta to tilt his head, as if in curiousity. 

“I had not considered that possibility yet. Though I would like to make a small request.”

“Anything for you, D,” Miles said, and he knew he meant it. They both knew it. The two of them were more closely entwined than some people in their lives might approve of, but it was a state they enjoyed. With each day they grew not only closer, but more distinct in a way. Two as one, and one as two. Helping Delta was helping himself. 

“Don’t tell them yet.”

But even as connected as they were, Delta always managed to find ways to surprise him. This was definitely one of the more interesting ones, though. 

“Why?” he couldn’t help but ask, not ready to delve into Delta’s awareness to pull the answer from him. That would be rude. 

Delta hung his head in shame. “I want to be certain that it will function under repeated use, be rechargeable, and such things. I do not desire to elevate the hopes of Theta and Nic until we are certain of the viability of this device. Can you please agree to that?”

There was more to it than that, Miles was certain. Perhaps a desire for a time to adjust to his new abilities before showcasing them. Or just the desire to have something with Miles that he didn’t have to share with anyone else for a time. But he was okay with that, and nodded happily. 

“You got it D. Now, let’s run a full diagnosis before we get too far ahead of ourselves, okay?”

“Now, I do believe, we are in territory with which I am quite familiar. Would you like to join me?”

As tempting as it was to sink into the ease and pleasure of the pure elegance of code as he’d been doing lately with Delta, Miles shook his head. “No. After all of this, I feel like I need to get some rest with my men. Can you handle this on your own?”

“Can you handle having some… strange dreams?”

Miles chuckled and pushed to his feet as the hologram flickered away. “D, think about who you’re talking to. I’m the master of strange dreams. Lay them on me.”

With a yawn he moved into the main room and smiled upon his sleeping lovers. Yeah. That was where he wanted to be.

_No offense, D._

_None taken. None ever taken._

A deep warmth flowed through him and Miles tried not to melt in the radiance of his AI’s love and devotion. Too bad he couldn’t rest in the arms of all three of his partners. That thought prompted the sensation of a hand in his own, and when he closed his eyes, Miles could ‘see’ the full glory of the form Delta had constructed for himself, in more natural human color. Delta stepped forward in the darkened room that still seemed perfectly lit behind Miles’s closed eyes. Fingers interwoven he followed his friend to the bed and laid down when he was directed. Nic and David immediately had Miles enfolded in their arms, an unconscious habit of his sleeping lovers. Delta smiled down at them fondly and leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to Miles’s brow that left the skin tingling. 

_Good night._

Miles let himself open his eyes briefly, let himself take in the darkness and the lack. But still he could feel the presence of his partners. And the fact that he could just pull out the mini-holoprojector and see Delta made everything feel right. Finally, after so long, things in his life were right again. Or near enough. He’d regained something the Project had taken from him, and Miles had no intention of ever letting it go again.


	13. Recovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When meeting with an old friend, Nic learns something terrible.

The cafe really wasn’t the kind of place that Nic would normally make time for. It specialized in fresh baked pastries that he knew he’d never really waste the money to buy. The coffee was all with high class names but not really high quality beans to back it up. The thing he thinks he dislikes the most is the very… cliche coffee shop atmosphere of the place. The walls are all done in shades of coffee and cream. The pictures on the walls are all the overdone art shots of mugs, of baked goods, of beans both ground and not. It was like someone went to a ‘pre-made coffee store shop’ and plunked the thing down in the middle of a slowly growing colony. Even now life made progress, even as people crossed their fingers and prayed the Covenant races wouldn’t find their little hidey hole. 

Once he thought to be one of the people that saved the day, helped to end the war. Now he sat like them, hoping the worst would never happen, except he knew it would. Statistics said, Theta’s calculations said, that someday this place too would fall, if it was found. And here he was, sitting in a cafe instead of suiting up and joining the war efforts. Not because staying was what he wanted to do. Not because hiding was what he thought was best. But because there was nothing else they could do given the fact that Freelancer was no doubt hunting them, and Nic doubted that was the only thing. 

So here he sat, in the middle of the ready-made coffee environment, paper cup filled with wretched brew in his hands, and he waited. Today was an important day, or it would be if he managed to be patient. Of course half an hour nursing the same cup while sitting in the traditional high chair at the standard high table could make anyone annoyed, doubly so when Theta has settled down in the back of his mind for the long haul, working his way through some of the logic puzzles Delta had created for Nic’s AI. At least the AI had something to do, which Nic was beginning to think he should have considered himself. 

“This spot taken?” 

Nic sighed in relief as he looked up at the source of the voice. Sure enough there was the person he was waiting for, a small woman with warm brown skin, laughing eyes, and no longer short cropped but definitely neon blue hair. For half a second Theta tensed in his mind over the remembered first meeting of the woman, and Nic almost thought he could feel a knife in his hand. Then the feeling was gone and the woman was sitting as he gestured for her to take the seat opposite him. 

“Been a long time, Lacey,” he found himself greeting her, his voice low and soft. “How are you doing?”

“You know how it goes,” she shrugged in response as she put a large mug of what smelled like mocha down in front of herself and slid into a seat. “Or maybe not. Either way, things are interesting. No end to the sorts of things you get to experience when you follow a certain gynoid around the galaxy righting wrongs and fighting injustice.”

“Tex, righting wrongs?” Nic chuckled, shaking his head. Somehow he doubted that. 

“Well, seeing as she considers her own existence a bit of a crime, I’ll let her definitions rule,” Lacey answered simply, lifting her mug to her lips to sip at it. 

Ask her how Beta is doing, Theta begged in the back of his head, and Nic carefully set the AI’s energetic desires aside. There would be time to get to that later. For right now there were other concerns to focus on, including but not limited to the fact that Lacey had used their blind drop contact methods to set up this meeting. If she was here, there were important things going on in the world. 

“I’m sorry to hear she’s having trouble,” Nic admits. He can tell from the distant look in Lacey’s eyes when she lowers her mug that there is still a connection there. Something tied the women together, beyond the implication of working together that Niner had offered him. If he had to be any judge of the situation, the way Niner and Texas had treated each other when he’d left the Pelican with his lovers, he’d probably say there had been a relationship just starting out there, and the concern now only seemed to reinforce that. “Is there anything I can…”

“I’m not here for platitudes, North,” Lacey dismissed and Nic tried not to flinch at the former designation. They never really said that they wouldn’t use those names anymore, but hearing it after all these months of either his name or the false identity he used made it… unnerving. 

Even I don’t use it for you anymore, Theta noted, and Nic radiated approval for that comment from his AI. The second the AIs made up their minds about something, it was an absolute truth. 

I know, kiddo. Thanks for that. Mind logging off for a minute, I need to talk to Lacey alone.

That got him a slight shiver of disappointment, followed by a confirmation ping as he felt Theta’s consciousness fade a bit away. As much as he loved his AI, Theta could be distracting sometimes, and Nic had a feeling that this was going to be a distracting topic. 

“So, what are you here for then?” Nic asked. If brisk was what the pilot wanted, brisk was what he was going to give her. “And please don’t tell me that we need to move from here, because I don’t want to hear that. The three of us have gotten rather settled and…”

“It’s about your sister.”

The paper cup, halfway to his mouth as Theta had shut down, froze. Then made a slow, careful descent back to the surface of the table. Last thing Nic needed was to make a scene about news that he didn’t even have yet. So he took a breath and nodded to Lacey, a clear sign that he was ready for her to explain what she had come with. That didn’t change the fact that his heart was racing with the fear of what she might say. The last Lacey or Tex had told them of her, she had remained on the MoI during the crash. Of course, considering Wyoming’s subsequent escape, Nic wasn’t certain what that meant for Nicky. Since news had reached Tex that Wyoming was free and acting as a merc, Nic had asked the women to listen for word of his twin. Choosing his lovers over her hadn’t meant he didn’t worry. 

“Honestly, Tex thinks I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I’ve got family, so I just couldn’t… I heard and I knew I had to tell you, so here I am,” Lacey sighed, her attention still on the drink in front of her. The fact that she wasn’t meeting his gaze right now wasn’t… good. “Your sister… she’s still in Freelancer hands.”

It was a relief that he hadn’t kept the coffee in hand. Because Nic was certain that in his anger he would have crushed the thing in his hands, and then where would he be? Sure it wasn’t hot enough to really hurt him anymore, but that didn’t mean it would be a good thing. “She’s…”

“Chatter has them creating a new division, focused on a few goals. The recovery of tech and AIs that have been taken by escaping personnel. Chasing down the people that make them look bad like me and Wyoming. And attempting to capture…”

Nic waved the last one off, because he had a feeling he knew who it related to. “What about it?”

“South’s going to be their top agent,” Lacey answered. “Soon enough they’re going to be sending her after you guys.”

She was going to get herself killed was more like it. If not by Maine, then by Wyoming. Texas… Nic, as he tried to protect the family that actually wanted him. 

“Is that all?” Nic asked, frowning down at his coffee. 

“No. I’ve got the normal updates to give you too. Struck me as better to do it all in one go, right?”

Nic nodded and slowly encouraged Theta back online. Without a word he pushed the AI to the fore and just fell further back into his mind. Nicky was still out there… 

And she was coming for him.


	14. Solitude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The worst thing is being alone. But maybe he doesn't have to be alone all the time.

The futility of his situation hit him halfway down the stairs. Everything had been perfectly fine before that. Well, no, perfectly fine was quite a lie to himself and to anyone that might be listening. Things hadn’t been fine for a long time. Each day holding on was harder. Each morning separating David from Epsilon from Alpha from Leonard Church got harder. Each day it felt like all the progress he had made before was ruined, for all that he hid it from his lovers. 

Today the goal had been a nice walk around the block, maybe a short trip to the store to buy things for dinner. Tonight was supposed to be his chance to cook, his reminding Nic that not everything was on his shoulders. That seemed even more important today considering the news that Nic had come back with from Lacey the other night. Finding out that your own twin sister was bound to hunt you down couldn’t have been easy, and considering the fact that Theta had clearly been in charge of their body last night, David wanted to do whatever he could to be supportive of his lover. Plus, since Miles was an absolute no go for cooking, it only made sense for David to take over when Nic wasn’t feeling well. 

That was the goal. That was what he was progressing toward like nothing else mattered. That was what David wanted. To be there, to be helpful, to not be held back by what he had allowed himself to become in that too-white room on a ship he never wanted to consider again. The moments of clarity were never enough, and David was beginning to suspect that their surroundings didn’t do enough to ground him in the here and now rather than in the past he might fall into any second. 

Like coming down the stairs. It was like a screenwipe for him, his stride changing as he moved to a slower pace, a stroll instead of the rushing down he usually did to get away from their apartment. Allison is at the bottom of those stairs his faulty memories tell him. She’s down there, waiting for him to finish dressing in the suit and tie he’d bought for the formal dinner they were going to for their anniversary. He can hear her voice just out of reach, laughing. 

_Leonard, you take forever to get ready. Stop preening and get your but down here before they give away our table._

The second the voice had called out, the yearning welling up from deep in his chest, David had frozen. Refused to progress. Just plopped himself down on the stairs and glared at his feet as he tried to force his head back into the present. He had on tennis shoes, not highly polished loafers. Who even bothered to polish shoes? Not him. Never him. Maybe his armor, but the armor Freelancer had given him had been impressive. More than impressive. Laudable. And look, his pants were jeans that were fraying at the hem, not pressed slacks. So many differences, but those were the ones he could focus on in the moment. The ones he needed to hold onto to keep himself from giving into the waves of memory slamming against his mind and…

“Mew?” 

The tiny, high pitched noise immediately drew David’s attention. Just like that his mind wasn’t on the struggle, but searching for the source. There could only be one thing that could make a noise like that, and as David turned around he found the source. A tiny little face, black and cream and white, stared down at him over the edge of the top step. Golden eyes like little suns watched as David twisted a little on the seat he was on to look right back up at them. 

“Mew,” the kitten repeated, its tiny little mouth opening wide to make a noise that carried through the whole stairwell. “Mew!”

There was no thought, only motion. David was on his feet and climbing the stairs in seconds, the little beauty getting settled on her paws and backing away from the edge as he approached. That didn’t stop her calls though, little whining things. 

“Are you lost?” he found himself asking as he reached the top step. 

“Mrew?” 

Slowly, as to not spook the kitten, he crouched down and offered his hand out toward it. More tiny little mewls came as the kitten approached, finally moving in to sniff at his fingers. And of course, the kitten went right back to mewling for attention as he carefully bet the little one behind the ears. The moment was perfect, the way the kitten was moving closer and started to climb his jean-clad leg. David giggled and just shifted so that the kitten had an easier time of it. 

The little one had made it all the way to his knee before there were feet pounding down the stairs. 

“Era?” a woman’s voice called desperately, and David carefully shifted so he wouldn’t be in the way in case she had to run down the stairs he was sitting on the edge of anyway. But the small red-head froze when she hit the landing David rested on with the lovely little kitten. And she smiled down at him, relieved. “There you are, Era. Thank you, sir, for finding my cat.”

“Little escape artist?” David asked, his voice warm and amused as he reached out and started to unhook little clawed paws from his jeans. The woman stretched down to take the kitten in her hands as David passed the furball up. 

“Constantly,” she chuckled. “The worst of them.”

“Them?” David asked as he pushed to his feet and brushed kitten fur from his pants.

“Yeah,” she smiled, moving the kitten to her shirt. Like a pro-climber the kitten latched on and just held in place, and the woman only needed to use one hand to hold the little one. “My Europa had a while litter. Era here is the one that gets out no matter how hard I try and keep her in.”

“Must be a handful,” David noted. “I hope the rest are more sedate.”

“They aren’t,” the woman laughed before holding her hand out. “Jessica. You?”

“David,” he smiled right back. “So… I find myself needing to ask… You’re not going to keep all of them, are you?”

Her smile became positively radiant. 

“I’ve been looking for homes for them. Why, you interested?”

David just beamed at her. Nic and Miles were not going to be amused when he got home. Or they would. Either way he didn’t care. Because there was no way at all Era wasn’t going home with him. And maybe not even alone.


	15. Kittens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are things that get to everyone in unexpected ways. York just wishes that his health concerns weren’t ignored by two people.

“Babe!” Miles called out as he closed the door of the apartment behind him with a foot, bags of new groceries and the apartment keys filling his arms. “Babe, I’m home!”

_Miles, I am not certain that David would appreciate such a moniker,_ Delta observed quite blandly in the back of his mind. For half a second Miles grieved the fact that he didn’t get to hear the voice aloud, Delta still too cautious to be willing to share their new advance in tech. He got to play with his partner when they were out of the house, people just assuming Miles was on a call or something. Here, though, well the others would figure out the ruse almost immediately.

_I have the right to pet…_

“Mew!”

“Era, hush,” David’s voice whispered, not that he can hide the sound from Delta, who caught the sound from the air and fed it to Miles.

For half a moment Miles was frozen in place, because there was no way that he just heard what he thought he heard. It was just a passing delusion, caused by the fact that he thought of the younger of his human companions as catlike. As a cat lover. As catty when he had the mood for it. There was, after all, no way there could be a cat of any variety beyond David in this apartment.

“Era no!”

The distress in David’s voice was punctuated by another small mewling noise and as Miles looked at the kitchen door, he found the only logical explanation for the noises. How David had managed to get his hands on the small, black, white and cream creature, Miles didn’t know. Yet he stood there, staring in something akin to horror as the creature approached, bounding with each step until it pounced on a shoelace Miles hadn’t noticed had come slightly undone. The better part of a moment he found himself there, watching the kitten frolick and twist, dance and twirl as it batted at the shoelace until at last it got its little claws into the thing and lifted it to its teeth to try and chew.

“Miles…”

He let himself look up when he heard David’s voice so close, ignoring the fuzzy warm feeling in his head as Delta no doubt marvelled at the little beastling. The look on his face was so soft, so hopeful, so excited and nervous, that Miles forced a smile to his own lips. Right. Be supportive of whatever he finds that works for him, because there is definitely more lucidity in those eyes than Miles has seen in a while, and even though he knows David has been hiding it, he knows it’s been hard. Worse than hard.

“Hey love,” Miles greeted. “So, uh.. Mind getting the critter off of me so I can hug you?”

“Yeah. Era really seems to like shoelaces. Eon is way more relaxed.”

Two. There are two kittens. There are two cute, fluffy, string chasing, food eating, paper clawing beasts in their apartment that he can’t say no to.

_Why would you seek to reject such a beautiful little creature?_ Delta queried briefly, leaving Miles to struggle not to sigh.

_One, they cost money to keep. We’re not exactly rolling in it, D. Then there is the fact that they destroy stuff. My neighbor had one, growing up. Clawed his furniture to high hell. They also stink. But mostly?_

Already he could feel it building up, the tickle in his nose, the water in his eyes, the slightest little itch all over his body. Still David looked up at him, though, and Miles had to do his best to try and keep it to himself. So he crouched down and smiled at the beast, even ass another peeked out from behind David's legs. This one was a bit more black than its sibling, white appearing only on its muzzle, belly and paws. A little kitten in a little tuxedo and all it makes Miles want to do is cry.

“They are so cu-chooo!” The compliment was lost in the force of his sneeze. And the kittens, not expecting the sudden and apparently scary noise, immediately tried to bold. This went quite well for the tuxedo kitten, but the other had managed to tangle itself in his shoelaces, and promptly fell head over tail with a protesting squeak.

“Oh god, you’re allergic!” David rushed to say, moving to Mile’s side to stoop and gather Era up, untangling the beast from York’s shoelace. “I’ll give them back, I promise. Right away.”

When Miles wiped his eyes temporarily dry he frowned and looked at his boyfriend. The sorrow in his expression was exceedingly plain, and all Miles could do was shake his head.

“Don’t you dare. There are medications to help me handle what is wrong with me. There aren’t any to deal with what happened to you.”

The comment made David freeze. “There’s… I’m fine, Miles.”

Everything in his body language disagreed. It It said the man he loved was scared. Maybe for the kittens, maybe for himself. But dammit, given all the time the younger man had spent talking about his old cats on the ship, and how desperately ne needed to not be alone, York couldn’t say no to that face. So instead he stepped forward, wrapping his arms around the sweet, well meaning man. “You’re not fine. You’re hurting, and the cats will help. Ignore my--chooo!--sneezes.”

There was nothing to be done for it, and he won’t do anything for it. Especially not with Era twisting in the space between them, mewling in protest at being trapped. Really, it was kind of cute.

“Hello, Era, I am Delta.”

Everything happened at once. A small green hologram appeared over Miles’s watch, just close enough to the kitten to try and interact with it. The kitten, clearly surprised, immediately pounced at the new spot of light that had appeared. That sent the kitten tumbling out of their arms and toward the floor, and drew a distressed noise from David who jerked out of the hug. Of course, true to all of the generalized knowledge of the ages, the feline was perfectly capable of landing on its feet, meowing in confusion at lost prey. And David, oh did David have a real reaction, one of pushing Miles away to stare in open shock at the green glow radiating from Miles’s wrist.

“Delta?” David asked, shocked into not caring about the less than pleased noises the kitten was making. “Miles, I don’t…”

“It would seem that our secret is out,” Delta observed, his voice bland before his hologram turned to regard David directly. “It seems both Miles and yourself have acquired pets without informing the other.”

“D, you’re not a pet,” Miles protested immediately. “It’s not that....”

“You both should have told us!”

“As you should have indicated your desire for feline companionship,” Delta returned immediately, crossing his arms over his armored chest. He was getting more expressive, and Miles actually had to flush a little in pride at that one. “I did not wish to have Nic excited about the prospect of seeing Theta, or Theta about being seen, before I was certain of the efficacy of the device. I will be working with Miles to craft one for Nic and Theta tonight. But we must address the glaring problem in the in the room.”

Already Miles had a feeling he wasn’t going to like where Delta was going.

“Miles’s allergies?” David asked curiously.

“More pressing than that,” Delta corrected freely. “How am I to get these new felines to like me?”

Miles’s laughter was consumed by his newest sneeze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Churby now has a [Ko-fi account.](https://ko-fi.com/A3364NF)


End file.
